Venture capital firm Sapphire Ventures is planning to significantly expand its European investment activities over the coming year, having raised USD2 billion in new capital commitments for investments in late-stage technology companies across the US, Europe and Israel.
This is the firm’s largest fundraise to date and comes across Sapphire Ventures Fund VI (Fund VI) and Sapphire Ventures Opportunity Fund III (Opportunity Fund III). This latest fundraise brings the firm’s AUM to USD8.8 billion.
As part of this expansion, which follows the opening of the firm’s first European office last year with seven team members, Sapphire is promoting Annalise Dragic, currently a Principal at the firm, to to Partner, making her one of Europe’s youngest female VC Partners.
In addition, the firm has announced that veteran investor and Sapphire Ventures Partner, Kevin Diestel, has relocated from Silicon Valley to join the European team and is now based in the London office. As a result, nearly a third of the firm’s enterprise venture-specialised partners are now based out of London. The team will continue to ramp up investment activity into the European and Israeli ecosystem during 2022.
